SATA disc on IDE motherboard

I bought a SATARaid controller for my mainboard because it isn't SATA compatible. The controller is: Silicon Image SiI 3512 SATARaid Controller, Mainboard: Soltek SL-75FRN2 / NV400-64 / NV400-L64, Chipset: nVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400. When I connected the SATARaid controller the found new hardware wizard appeared and the controller was installed correctly, and the device is functioning correctly. The problem is when I connect my new 500 gb SATA disk nothing happens. Like there isn't any new hardware connected.please help!

XP will detect the SATA controller as an IDE compatible device, but you must install the drivers for the Silicon Image SiI 3512 SATA Raid Controller in order for it be be recognized as a SATA controller - they're not built into XP - did you?

If there are both non RAID and RAID drivers, install the RAID drivers - they include support for non RAID use, you're not required to set up a RAID array (you need at least two SATA drives for that) , and the non RAID drivers probably won't work. ......

Your new SATA drive has no data on it.

You have to go into Disk Management, make at least one partition, and format it.

Setup defaults to making only one partition on a hard drive. The problem with that is if you ever need to re-load Windows from scratch, you lose everything on the partition Windows was installed on, and when you have only partition on the hard drive, that's everything on the drive - unless you copy the data you don't want to lose to elsewhere BEFORE you install Windows from scratch (most people don't bother, and lose all their data) . If you're installing XP from a regular CD, it's recommended you make at least TWO partitions on the drive.How to make more than one partition on a hard drive, when you're installing Windows on a blank hard drive, or when you are deleting the existing partition(s) on a hard drive before you run Setup .....See Response 3:http://www.computing.net/answers/wi...

Similar applies in Disk Management even if you don't run Setup..........

In order to be able to boot fron a SATA drive connected to the Silicon Image SiI 3512 SATA Raid Controller, there must be an operating system installed on the drive, and you need to be able to select SCSI in the Boot Order or similar settings in the bios Setup and place that before any hard drive.

Thanks for the reply but it doesn't solve my problem...I don't want to make my new SATA disc a boot disk with windows...I want to use it simply as a data disk. I already formatted the disk and made 2 partitions but it never appears in my computer or in administrative tools/data magement. Just like it simply isn't there.

You MUST unplug the computer, or switch off the AC power source to the computer, whenever you fiddle with any component or connection inside the case and/or connected to the mboard, because ATX mboards are always powered in some places as long as the ATX PS is getting live AC, even when the computer is not running, and that includes some of the contacts in the ram slots.If you did not do that every time you fiddled, you may have damaged the mboard circuits, or anything connected to it.

"it never appears in my computer or in administrative tools/data magement."

The only thing that can cause that is a poor connection or no connection.

Did you remember to plug in the power connection to the SATA drive ?

Remove the AC power to the case, make sure the SATA card is all the way down in it's slot, and....

Check your SATA data cables. The connector on each end should "latch" into the socket on the drive and on the mboard, or on the drive controller card - it should not move when you merely brush your hand against it near the socket - if it does, mere vibration can cause a poor connection of it - use another SATA data cable that does "latch", or tape the connector in place.(There is a slight projection or bump on one side of the outside of the connector that "latches" it into the socket - it's easily broken off or damaged)

The same thing applies for the SATA power connection..........

"I already formatted the disk and made 2 partitions "

When did you do that? When it was connected to this same SATA card, or when the SATA drive was connected to another computer?

If you did that when the SATA drive was connected to another computer, did you do that in Vista or Windows 7?

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